YANGON, Myanmar

How to help Bishop Larry Silva asks Hawaii Catholics to help those suffering from the cyclone in Myanmar and the earthquake in China by sending money to Catholic Relief Services who is supporting the emergency response efforts of Caritas Interna- tionalis, a confederation of Catholic organizations around the world. Send a check to: Catholic Relief Services P.O. Box 17090 Baltimore, MD 21203-7090 Memo line: Southeast Asia Natural Disaster Or: Call 1-877-HELP-CRS (1-877-435-7277) Or: Make a secure donation online at www.crs.org. Hawaii parishes that take up a special collection may also send the donations to the local Catholic Relief Services office: Carol R. Ignacio Executive Director Office for Social Ministry 140 B. Holomua Street Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Phone: 808-935-3050 Fax: 808-935-3794 E-mail: cignacio@rcchawaii.org

For the teams of church volunteers from Yangon fanning out into the cyclone-devastated Irrawaddy delta, the human cost is clear.

It is not just realized in the bloated dead bodies the volunteers pass on the rivers or in the fields; it is in the loss reflected in the eyes of survivors, grieving for family members as they huddle in the few large buildings left standing.

The Asian church news agency UCA News reported that dozens of volunteers from the Yangon Archdiocese, Karuna Myanmar Social Services, and the newly created Myanmar Disaster Relief Committee have been visiting badly affected places to begin addressing the humanitarian disaster caused by Cyclone Nargis, which struck Myanmar May 3.

Myanmar’s government said May 16 that close to 77,800 people have died. The Red Cross said the toll may be as high as 128,000; the U.N. estimates more than 100,000 died and at least 1 million people are in need of food, clean water, shelter and clothing.

A woman in Hawaii with Myanmar connections, who preferred not be named, said in a May 19 phone conversation, “There are many, many people affected.”

She heard second-hand that many people in the affected area were still without electricity and that soaring gas prices prevented those with generators from using them. She said that people without food have resorted to theft and there is still much fear.

The woman added that members of religious communities initially wanted to go to the region. “They were volunteering from different dioceses and the military did not allow them to go,” she said.

Aid groups had reached only 270,000 by May 16, The Associated Press reported.

On May 23, Myanmar’s junta agreed to allow aid from all nationalities into the delta area.

Paschal En Khan Tuang said his team had visited 10 villages in Nyaungdone, less than 40 miles northwest of Yangon. He told UCA News May 16 that continued tropical downpours made travel even more difficult for the volunteers.

Father Francis Than Htun, director of the local church’s social service agency, told UCA News May 16 that “some volunteers told me the people are in severe shock because they have not experienced anything like this cyclone.”

He said that, with so many dead, injured or traumatized, the people face not only physical problems such as lack of food and water, but also mental distress.

He said the church volunteers had so far distributed rice, water, clothes and shelter materials in 14 Yangon parishes and have helped clean up villages.

In a message sent to UCA News May 13, Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon described the needs as “enormous,” with “thousands and thousands of families” affected in the archdiocese.

One of the first volunteer groups to go out went May 8 to Pyapon, 75 miles southwest of Yangon.

For the team of two priests and three laypeople that arrived by road, the picture was shocking: In the town’s Baptist church, about 150 survivors sat on the floor with the meager belongings they could salvage.

Although this initial trip was just to assess needs before the team went back the following day with aid, people were happy to see them. A 13-year-old girl, Yuya, hurried to offer the visitors chairs.

“We are very glad that the church volunteers come to see us,” she told UCA News. She said her family had to “paddle by boat into the church compound” after riding out the storm.

The Rev. Saw Kanaemie, pastor of the Baptist church, told UCA News that some of the people work during the day, then return to his church at night, when 600 others cram into the church to sleep with a roof over their heads. He noted that “some businessmen give us rice,” but food as well as medicine remain priority needs.

On the way from Pyapon to Leieintan village by motorboat, the volunteers saw the bloated bodies of many dead people and cattle.

One priest from the volunteer group, who preferred not to be named, said he found the people “traumatized” and wandering around the town in a daze. He said he wanted to offer them psychological counseling.

Prayers

About 1,000 people, some inside Our Lady of Fatima Church and others outside under umbrellas in the rain, attended a May 18 Mass devoted to the victims and survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

Before the Mass, Father Joseph Maung Win, the parish priest, asked Massgoers to pray for the victims.

Archbishop Charles Bo of Yangon said the Mass, and Archbishop Paul Zinghtung Grawng of Mandalay, three other bishops and 19 priests concelebrated.

Both Archbishops Bo and Grawng recently visited cyclone survivors in the Irrawaddy delta. Archbishop Grawng is president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Myanmar.

“It is important to help the neediest people affected by Cyclone Nargis without discrimination,” Archbishop Bo said in his homily. “The good news is God is one, we are one. In the present situation, all people have trouble, but we need to help others who face more trouble than us.”

The Mass collection was to be used for the church’s relief work, much of which is focused on helping people in the delta area where most of the damage and loss of life took place.

In other Catholic and Protestant churches in Yangon, prayers also were said for the cyclone victims and survivors, and special collections were taken up to support relief efforts.

The 2007 Myanmar Catholic Directory counts fewer than 628,000 Catholics among 47 million people in the predominantly Buddhist country.